Congress - Maybe it's OUR fault

Originally posted by whodey
Maybe Egypt should chastise those in the US government for not being a legitimate democracy.
It reminds me of Dirty Harry running for his last term. A year before the election his approval rating in Nevada was only 9%, yet he wins anyway. It's a miracle!!
I guess instead of suspending elections in the US, all they do is rig them in some form or fashion.

The 2000 presidential election immediately came to mind.

Whenever a politician manages to get funding for projects in his district, his chances of being re-elected go up. Whenever a politician from another district does the same, voters complain that it's "pork-barrel politics" and lose a little more fate in congress. The approval ratings are a logical result of this system.

Originally posted by caissad4
The 2000 presidential election immediately came to mind.

I don't really distinguish between the policies of "W" and Obama. Both seem to have been hand picked from the same piece of cloth. In fact, Obama lost to Hillary in terms of popular votes in the DNC, not that Hillary would have done much different.

Originally posted by Barts
Whenever a politician manages to get funding for projects in his district, his chances of being re-elected go up. Whenever a politician from another district does the same, voters complain that it's "pork-barrel politics" and lose a little more fate in congress. The approval ratings are a logical result of this system.

The list is endless. Try having the reigns of the IRS for example. Obama used them to help him win whether he did it directly or indirectly.

Originally posted by whodey
Voting 3rd party won't work. Both parties control the votes. You get people like Rwingett who will vote "D" down the line while also conceding that the system is poo. Then you have Republicans who do the same. Both have bought into the propaganda of how bad the other party is. This is key since most Americans hate both parties on some level.

My only q ...[text shortened]... lly, I would love a photo of an American citizen standing in the way of a column of US tanks.

What's stopping you from rising up and standing in the way of that tank, Whodey? That's a serious question I have. Day in day out you write here about how bad everything is, how rotten the system is, how left and right are basically the same and how you - as one of the few - are actually able to see through it all.

What do you do? I mean besides voting every once in a while for a party that you think is the best - because that's what everybody else does. What are your action points? Are you working on something? Trying to bring down the system in some clever way?

You vote and you complain on some chess website. That's not rising up. That's playing along. That's being a part of the system.

What do you actually do??

Originally posted by Great King Rat
What's stopping you from rising up and standing in the way of that tank, Whodey? That's a serious question I have. Day in day out you write here about how bad everything is, how rotten the system is, how left and right are basically the same and how you - as one of the few - are actually able to see through it all.

What do you do? I m t's playing along. That's being a part of the system.

What do you actually do??

If I told you, I would have to feed you rat poison. 😵

I just think it's good to have people who don't have their head up their arse.

So... nothing. You do absolutely nothing. That about sums it up?

Originally posted by whodey
Voting 3rd party won't work. Both parties control the votes. You get people like Rwingett who will vote "D" down the line while also conceding that the system is poo. Then you have Republicans who do the same. Both have bought into the propaganda of how bad the other party is. This is key since most Americans hate both parties on some level.

My only q ...[text shortened]... lly, I would love a photo of an American citizen standing in the way of a column of US tanks.

you mean the electoral college? i will have to admit that all the ELECTED officials representing ron paul got very bad treatment! it wasn't long ago when romney and the RNC kept all the ron paul people that were supposed to be there out, or just silent. even after signing paper after paper that they would vote for romney in the convention. sad that they changed some of the rules up just to block the ron movement. silenced by their own party! republicans should take note on those events that bordered on the lines of voter fraud within the republican party

doesn't matter if you support ron paul, or not. the treatment given to ron and his supporters in office wasn't fair. i'm big on fairness, by the way 🙂

Originally posted by Great King Rat
So... nothing. You do absolutely nothing. That about sums it up?

Tyranny is the natural state of mankind. Most men throughout history have only known slavery.

Knowing this, at least one can speak out against it. Changing the nature of man is not in my capacity.

Originally posted by empovsun
you mean the electoral college? i will have to admit that all the ELECTED officials representing ron paul got very bad treatment! it wasn't long ago when romney and the RNC kept all the ron paul people that were supposed to be there out, or just silent. even after signing paper after paper that they would vote for romney in the convention. sad that they cha ...[text shortened]... nt given to ron and his supporters in office wasn't fair. i'm big on fairness, by the way 🙂

My favorite bit was by Jon Stewart. He had a segement on Ron Paul where he showed all the major networks snubbing him one way or another. They all did it, including Fox News. I tried to find it on Youtube but it looks like it is gone. :'(

Anyway, no one expects to overthrow the system, but we can at least speak out against it. As time wanes, such speach will eventually make more and more sense as evidence mounts against its detractors. People like Ron Paul and Snowden are nothing more than cracks in a crumbling wall.

Originally posted by Great King Rat
So... nothing. You do absolutely nothing. That about sums it up?

I have repeatedly asked whodey about what kind of concrete proposals he has for solving the problems he sees. Very rarely does he go beyond clichés, platitudes and tiresome oneliners. Beyond whodey apparently doing nothing in the political arena (which in all honesty is quite acceptable - we all have our lives to live, no?), it's not even clear what his ideas are or his ideology is. There is something about a small government which hires three trillion people to watch every femtometer of the border, and something about gays and AIDS, but it's unclear where it's all supposed to lead to.

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
I have repeatedly asked whodey about what kind of concrete proposals he has for solving the problems he sees. Very rarely does he go beyond clichés, platitudes and tiresome oneliners. Beyond whodey apparently doing nothing in the political arena (which in all honesty is quite acceptable - we all have our lives to live, no?), it's not even clear what his ...[text shortened]... rder, and something about gays and AIDS, but it's unclear where it's all supposed to lead to.

To suggest that I have ideas about how to collectively fix the US would make me a collectivist. No, no, I have no such intellectual mystical superpowers as do collectivists like Barak Obama that have magical one size fits all answers to the problems in life.

I am for greater representation by decentralizing power within government. I would much rather have my state have the purse strings than the bloated federal government where massive pots of money simply disappear without a trace. Government should be local, not distant and it should be more representative than it currently is. After all, this is why the US was founded in the first place. The Founding Fathers felt that they were not properly represented and the powers that ruled over them were distant and uncaring about their needs. And as we see with a Congressional approval rating of only 10% or so, and sitting presidents who end their two terms with abysmal approval ratings, the US is anything but representative of the populace.

So continue to mock me, I've got nothing but time on my hands as I watch these collectivists try to transform me, when really they should just leave me the hell alone so long as I'm a law abiding citizen. Tyranny may be the rule of law, but in the hearts of men we know freedom is a natural right given to us from God. For it is God who sets us free, and man that puts us in chains.

Originally posted by whodey
To suggest that I have ideas about how to collectively fix the US would make me a collectivist. No, no, I have no such intellectual mystical superpowers as do collectivists like Barak Obama that have magical one size fits all answers to the problems in life.

I am for greater representation by decentralizing power within government. I would much rather ...[text shortened]... l right given to us from God. For it is God who sets us free, and man that puts us in chains.

Okay. Why the state level, why not some other level of government? And what responsibilities are legitimately federal, and why?

Don't you see that "more decentralized government" without being more specific as to the how, why and to what extent is precisely a "one size fits all"-solution you say you don't want?

Originally posted by KazetNagorra
Okay. Why the state level, why not some other level of government? And what responsibilities are legitimately federal, and why?

Don't you see that "more decentralized government" without being more specific as to the how, why and to what extent is precisely a "one size fits all"-solution you say you don't want?

The fewer the voters the more your vote counts. Also, the closer your representative is to where you live the more representative he will be to your district.

Europe is falling into the collectivist trap that the US has fallen into. As we see, the EU is bringing down socialist states in the north by their southern members. As we see, the system does not work for everyone every time everywhere.

For the sake of argument, lets say there is a one world order? Would you prefer casting a vote for the leader of the world or for your individual country? From which will you get better representation?

It's not rocket science. Collectivism is inherently flawed and arrogant. What works best for you may not work for me, and vise versa. In addition, we are forever giving up personal freedom all in the never ending pursuit of helping the collective. What we then wind up with little by little is the erosion of person liberty. There is no way around it as we sink more and more into a tyrannical system, all in the name of our collective good.

Originally posted by whodey
The fewer the voters the more your vote counts. Also, the closer your representative is to where you live the more representative he will be to your district.

Europe is falling into the collectivist trap that the US has fallen into. As we see, the EU is bringing down socialist states in the north by their southern members. As we see, the system does not ...[text shortened]... d it as we sink more and more into a tyrannical system, all in the name of our collective good.

The fewer the voters the more your vote counts. Also, the closer your representative is to where you live the more representative he will be to your district.

But by that logic, the state level is not optimal at all - rather, it implies the smallest possible administrative districts (i.e. anarchy). Even at the county level, your vote will cote more and the representative will be closer. So why not focus more power away from the state into county hands?